 | This is an essay on notability. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Wikipedia's notability requirement is perhaps the most confusing of all of Wikipedia's core requirements and guidance. The system mostly works, but is very difficult to fully understand or explain. Lack of recognition of how it actually works presents a roadblock to progress and clarification in this area. This essay seeks to fix that by defining how it actually operates, with emphasis on areas which are different that are different than common conceptions.
A common meaning of Wikipedia notability is the criteria defined by Wikipedia's notability guidelines. The additional unrecognized meaning is that it is the name for Wikipedia's main "should this be allowed to be a separate article?" criteria and process, which incorporates additional considerations not contained in the notability guidelines. The "top two" of those other considerations are degree of encyclopedic-ness of the topic and degree of importance, impact or prominence of the topic.
Rather than being truly defined in one place, wiki-notability has a defacto definition which is the end result of a complex wiki-notability ecosystem. This ecosystem consists of guidelines, established practices and values, venues and other pages and human decision making.